Associate Professor
Ballet
Ethnic Dance
Choreography
Dance History
Office: Zink Dance Studio
Phone: 724-357-5528
Email: jvandyke@iup.edu
Joan Van Dyke began her dance training at a young age and completed levels 1–5 of the Ceccheti method. During high school, she participated in an early release for the arts program and attended classes at Point Park College, acquiring college credits. She is a graduate of Virginia Intermont College with a B.A. in ballet with a teaching certification. While in college, she performed with the Bristol Ballet Company and danced various roles in ballets including Coppelia, The Nutcracker, Graduation Ball, Giselle, Hussar and Les Syllphide as well as numerous contemporary pieces.
Following undergraduate school, she joined the North Star Ballet Company in Fairbanks, Alaska, where she performed and taught various forms and levels of dance. She also taught ballet at the University of Alaska and at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
Ms. Van Dyke graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, with an M.S in ballet with an emphasis in kinesiology. She studied the Pilates technique and Laban studies at the Laban Center in New Cross, London. She graduated with an M.F.A. in dance from Arizona State University. During her time in Arizona, she conducted extensive research on the effects of climate in young ballet dancers throughout the United States.
Ms. Van Dyke has owned and directed her own school and performing civic company for the past fifteen years. Most recently, she was the appointed ballet mistress for the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts from 2001 until 2007.